How to make a self extracting archive that runs your setup.exe with 7zip -sfx switch

The scenario

When you use the default Microsoft Visual Studio Installer (yes, it is back as an extension for VS 2013 – Visual studio Installer Projects Extension), the output are two files:

1. installer.msi – the .msi installation file
2. setup.exe – which is the bootstrap that does your pre-requisite checks

So you want to provide a download for your product from your website as a single file.

Some possible options include:

1. Zip the two files – the user has to download a zip, extract the zip and run the setup.exe
2. Just provide the msi file, but this by passes the pre-requisite checks which is not ideal; or
3. Create a self extracting archive that runs, extracts the software and then calls the setup.exe

The self extracting archive option seems the best.

The problem

I wanted to use 7Zip to create the self extracting archive but I could not seem to find a simple guide that explained exactly how to do it.

I have finally worked it out and below are some detailed instructions.

How to make a self extracting archive that launches your installer after extraction

It is actually quite simple to do if you follow these easy steps.

Step 1 – Setup your installation folder

To make this easy create a folder c:\Install. This is where we will copy all the required files.

Step 2 – 7Zip your installers

1. Go to the folder that has your msi and your setup.exe
2. Select both the .msi and the setup.exe
3. Right-Click and choose 7Zip –> “Add to Archive”
4. Name your archive “Installer.7z” (or a name of your choice)
5. Click Ok
6. You should now have “Installer.7z”.
7. Copy this .7z file to your c:\Install directory

Step 3 – Get the 7z-Extra sfx extension module

You need to download the 7z-Extra.

1. Follow this link to go to 7zip download.
2. You need to download the 9.20 version (as @ May-2015) as the beta does not contain the correct files.
3. A direct download link.
4. Extract the 7zip extra files
5. Copy the file “7zS.sfx” to c:\Install

Step 4 – Setup your config.txt

I would recommend using NotePad++ to edit this text file as you will need to encode in UTF-8, the following instructions are using notepad++.

1. Using windows explorer go to c:\Install
2. right-click and choose “New Text File” and name it config.txt
3. right-click and choose “Edit with NotePad++
4. Click the “Encoding Menu” and choose “Encode in UTF-8”
5. Enter something like this:

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   ;!@Install@!UTF-8! Title="SOFTWARE v1.0.0.0" BeginPrompt="Do you want to install SOFTWARE v1.0.0.0?" RunProgram="setup.exe" ;!@InstallEnd@!

Edit this replacing [SOFTWARE v1.0.0.0] with your product name.
Notes on the parameters and options for the setup file are here

CheckPoint

You should now have a folder “c:\Install” with the following 3 files:

1. Installer.7z
2. 7zS.sfx
3. config.txt

Step 5 – Create the archive

These instructions I found on the web but nowhere did it explain any of the 4 steps above.

You are finished

Run the installer

Double click on MyInstaller.exe and it will prompt with your message. Click OK and the setup.exe will run.

Everything is easy… once you know how. 

P.S. Note on Automation

Now that you have this working in your c:\Install directory I would create an “Install.bat” file and put the copy script in it.

Now you can just edit and run the Install.bat every time you need to rebuild a new version of you deployment package.

1. Open a cmd window, Window + R –> cmd –> press enter
2. In the command window type the following

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   cd \ cd Install copy /b 7zS.sfx + config.txt + Installer.7z MyInstaller.exe

3. Look in c:\Install and you will now see you have a MyInstaller.exe